FieldTurf Says Removal of RMHS Artificial Turf Involved Bad Actors, Omits They Guaranteed RMHS Field would be Recycled and Not End Up in Landfill

On Friday, March 1, 2019, the Maryland House Environmental and Transportation Committee held a hearing on House Bill 1142.  HB 1142 would seek to regulate the disposal of artificial turf.

As part of the public hearing, various people spoke about the disposal of the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf in the summer of 2018.  The disposal of that plastic football field was documented here on the Parents' Coalition blog.  One of our members happened to see the plastic field being rolled up and loaded on to an open tractor trailer.  As the plastic and crumb rubber was driven away, crumb rubber was spilling out all over the ground and road. 

We documented the removal of the RMHS field and made the pictures public. 
Some of our pictures were used in support of House Bill 1142.

After members of the public spoke in support of the bill those that opposed the bill spoke.  One of the speakers opposing the bill was Zach Franz representing FieldTurf (video of statement below).  Mr. Franz referenced the earlier public comments about the disposal of the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field by saying, "some of the earlier reference bad actors that could be a subcontractor that was hired by a field owner to dispose of a field improperly."

Mr. Franz omitted that when the first FieldTurf (no bid) artificial turf fields were being installed on Montgomery County Public School fields the issue of disposal of these fields was part of the public debate.  Disposal of these fields was the topic of discussion in public meetings at the Montgomery County Council.

As a result of those discussions, FieldTurf issued the December 2009 letter shown below guaranteeing that the fields they installed in MCPS would be,

"100% recycled after its useful life is finished and will also guarantee that the field does not end up in a landfill. " 

So when the Richard Montgomery High School FieldTurf artificial turf field was removed and dumped by a river in Baltimore County and sent to a landfill in Virginia, who was the "bad actor" in that situation?

2010 Artificial Turf Purcha... by on Scribd